Delivering in the Dark

[xPandabear1992x]

Companies the world over with far fewer resources than RM have altered their way of working permanently to be covid safe, yet here we are, 6 months on with the mother of all Christmases approaching and all we've had so far is a few well places rumours that they want to trial van shares again.
Van share is dead in the water.

It’s shocking isn’t it. All duties should have been changed permanently to either hct or single van deliverys, it really wouldn’t have taken much work. This Christmas is going to be a disaster.

It would have been fairly easy to do, but for whatever reasons there is an extreme reluctance to make the changes. I could understand the confusion at the start of all this, but there now seems to be a total head in the sand attitude from the decision makers. I wouldn't be surprised if within a few weeks we'll all be given a £200-300 'bonus' to soften us up for something else.

if the company as a whole is anything like my office, the systematic refusal to make the changes is down to people thinking because they've been there 20/30 years the changes don't apply to them, and when they get told otherwise they throw their toys out the pram.

90% of my office are perfectly happy going in without PPE, without social distancing, without using due caution to help protect themselves each other. As soon as RM come in and say "lets get back to van sharing" all these fucknuggets are suddenly concerned about their health.

What's worse is the union handed out PPE like nobody's business and then just sat back. And now the union has flipped it and are now saying health and safety is paramount.

Doesnt PPE go hand in hand with health and safety or am I missing something? It was always supposed to be used in conjunction with social distancing not instead of.

yes, certainly. but the point is most of the people at my d/o can't be arsed with any of it. at all. either because of a lack of enforcement, or a huge sense of entitlement, or both.

[xPandabear1992x]

What's worse is the union handed out PPE like nobody's business and then just sat back. And now the union has flipped it and are now saying health and safety is paramount.

Like a lot of people you're confused about the role the union plays in the workplace. It's there to inform and educate, to organise and defend but it's not there to police. Union reps have exactly the same power to tell other people what to do as you... none.

Oh, right, in that case the Union ought to inform and educate its members that ppe & social distancing are completely necessary. Granted, police they are not. However. They're not doing themselves any favours applying double standards.

[Woody Guthrie]

Oh, right, in that case the Union ought to inform and educate its members that ppe & social distancing are completely necessary.

They have done.
You said yourself they were handing out PPE like nobody's business, are we asking them to put it on for us?

[Celgar]

On the subject of change I think most posties are not too resistant to change although it is nice to know what you will be doing from day to day. The trouble is if you look at the recent update on the dispute talks many of the changes are unnecessary and actually will make the job take longer and be more difficult notably 'bench merging'. I don't think we can honestly resist automation of parcel sorting and the subsequent job losses though and this seems to be where the CWU is holding most firm.

[Sugar]

notably 'bench merging'.

A lot of what's going on looks more like an agenda to reduce total number of walks and frames in each office and increase overall usable floor space for either a larger influx of parcels especially if it's an LAT hub or, and this is what my money would be on, to merge more offices together to reduce overall running costs and rents. It may also lead to a reduction in total number of "managers" needed to run each now larger unit. I could also see them switching to a redelivery service with online booking only like other couriers do to reduce the number of hours needed to man the front desk because of customers coming to pick up their own packages. One thing is for certain it's all about saving the maximum amount of money possible in the shortest possible time and will inevitably, like all rm's changes, lead to a simple job being made much harder than it actually needs to be and in the end not deliver the savings the keyboard warriors and number crunchers said it would deliver.

[SpacePhoenix]

I think one important factor that's going to come into play at some point is if a DO can handle 17tonners from the local MC

[wallan]

I think one important factor that's going to come into play at some point is if a DO can handle 17tonners from the local MC

Agree , Three DO,s near me have 600,s unloading in the Street , One of the DO,s will be relocating in the near future due to the site been bought for redevelopment , this will no doubt be to an out of town industrial unit
As the other Two Do,s are with in about 5 Miles of the one relocating , will the new premises be large enough to accomedate all Three , time will tell

[SpacePhoenix]

Agree , two DO,s near me 600,s have to unload in the Street

I know that's the case for at least 1 DO near me and another the 600s have to get down a very narrow driveway (don't know off-hand if 17 tonners are much wider than 600s)

[CHUCKYPIG]

Well, its happened. I, along with a few of the other part time reserves are now delivering in the dark. I can honestly say that it does take about twice as long, especially on a round you don't know that well. Constantly stopping to shine the torch on the address and then trying to find out where the F the house is.

Anyone else now delivering in the dark?

Would you say it affects your speed?

[Grumpyoldmailman]

Well, its happened. I, along with a few of the other part time reserves are now delivering in the dark. I can honestly say that it does take about twice as long, especially on a round you don't know that well. Constantly stopping to shine the torch on the address and then trying to find out where the F the house is.

Anyone else now delivering in the dark?

Would you say it affects your speed?

I went 3 hours over to finish off my duty today so yes it was dark, not so bad for me as I have been on it for a long time but I can understand your concerns. Years ago I had a head torch for when we could get out before light, might have to dig it out the way things are going.

[CHUCKYPIG]

Well, its happened. I, along with a few of the other part time reserves are now delivering in the dark. I can honestly say that it does take about twice as long, especially on a round you don't know that well. Constantly stopping to shine the torch on the address and then trying to find out where the F the house is.

Anyone else now delivering in the dark?

Would you say it affects your speed?

I went 3 hours over to finish off my duty today so yes it was dark, not so bad for me as I have been on it for a long time but I can understand your concerns. Years ago I had a head torch for when we could get out before light, might have to dig it out the way things are going.

Yeah I think its harder if we don't know a walk. I've been on a new one this week so its the hardest week I've had so far, a new walk in the dark. Its getting easier each day I do it thankfully. Maybe next week I'll be put on another new walk though!

This week I've been using the torch that royal mail gave me that clips onto my jacket but its shite. I have to use one hand to move the torch to point at the mail which slows me down.

I will buy a head torch online now actually. I think it will be quicker and easier to read the addresses on the mail/packets as I go round.

[rambo1]

I've got a ledlenser , got it from go outdoors last yr for about £40, it's worth spending that amount, don't get cheap shite, it's rechargeable and it's honestly like delivering in daylight, full beam last about an hr but you can vary the brightness. Only problem is it tends to blind you a bit if you have white letters and look at them. Oh, don't shine it in a customers face either, again, blinding issue lol.
Ok, I will say that we shouldn't have to pay for these but as usual royal mail provided equipment is sub standard crap, so it's up to you but it is useful for other stuff non work related.

[PostmanBitesDog]

I delivered in the dark last winter. To hell with doing it again this year.

[steve1873]

I bought this... https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08 ... UTF8&psc=1

£12 and it's pretty decent. Have been doing backshift for months now so needed to get something after clocks went back. It has 2 brightness settings as well as a strobe effect and it has a 4th setting in which you can move your hand in front of sensor to turn it on and off which is very handy for doing parcels and in and out of van.

[Celgar]

My personal viewpoint is if that someone knocks on my front door and it is dark I will be reluctant to answer or open the door unless I am expecting a visitor. If it is after 1900 I am very unlikely to answer the door.
Therefore for this reason alone I for one will not be delivering in the dark. I will make sure the parcels get delivered so if it gets as bad as we all think it will the letters are going to be on a rolling cut-off. Also by the time it gets fully dark I will be up to two hours extended delivery and I don't really want to do more than that per day. I like to keep 'my customers' happy but there is a limit to how much of my life I wish to devote to the job.